Protesters Storm TransCanada's Corporate Office

More than 100 protesters entered the lobby of TransCanada's Houston office Monday in protest of the company's proposed Keystone XL project.

The coalition was in the headquarters for about an hour before being forced out of the lobby by police. The protesters danced, spilled black ”tar sands” balloons and hung neon orange hazard tape. Two of the protesters locked themselves to the front doors of the offices demanding accountability for alleged abuses by TransCanada.

TransCanada declined to comment about the event.

Two arrests were made for trespassing, with one of the protesters being a journalist from Chicago, Illinois.

"From the Texas backwoods to the corporate boardrooms, the fight to defend our homes from toxic tar sands will not be ignored," Ramsey Sprague, a Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson, told Rigzone. "We're here today to directly confront the TransCanada executives who're continuing on with business as usual while making our communities sacrifice zones."

The protest was over the 1,200-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline, which is currently being reviewed by the State Department. The coalition claims that this event kicks-off a new phase of blockade organizing - targeting the corporate, political and financial infrastructure behind the Keystone XL pipeline with solidarity actions planned across the country this week, including Austin, Detroit and New York City.

The grassroots coalition of Tar Sands Blockade, Idle No More, Earth First and others claim Monday's action was the largest gathering yet in the months-long campaign by climate justice organizers and Texas landowners against the pipeline. This was the first mass action in Houston targeting TransCanada corporate offices.

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Travis | Jan. 22, 2013

Those hippies need to get a job to better occupy their time.

kotchv humoti | Jan. 7, 2013

Idle No More from the Indigenous people of Northern Hemishere is coming to your community.